Ice Road photo courtesy Northwest Territories Tourism

Northwest Territories – During the winter special roads are constructed out of ice, up to a metre thick, across tundra lakes and rivers. Each year a network of private and public roads are created and maintained. The roads are used by cars, trucks, snowmobiles and dog teams. You can actually drive your car across the sea, between late December and early April , between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. The frozen road crosses the Mackenzie River Delta, and tundra before it reaches Kugmallit Bay on the Beaufort Sea. Ice roads are actually much more efficient for transporting large equipment for summer work, than summer travel by barge. Truckers will take advantage of the short season and use the routes 24 hours a day. Outfitters can arrange road trips on the ice. The world’s longest heavy haul ice road stretches from Yellowknife to Contoyoto Lake Winter Road on the western edge of Nunavut – a total of 568 km. It’s open between February and March.